(CNN) - American Idol star turned congressional nominee Clay Aiken called the Department of Veterans Affairs "unwieldy," and said President Barack Obama is ultimately responsible for holding the VA accountable.

Asked by CNN's Brooke Baldwin on Wednesday whether the President should take a more hands-on approach to dealing the growing controversy, Aiken said, "I certainly think the President is responsible for it at the end of the day."

Washington (CNN) - Republicans didn't waste much time in trying to score some political points off of Tuesday's loss by Marjorie Margolies in her bid to re-capture the House seat she lost 20 years ago.

Margolies, the mother-in-law to Chelsea Clinton, was handily defeated as she ran in the Democratic Primary for Pennsylvania's 13th Congressional District. State Representative Brendan Boyle soundly defeated Margolies by 13-percentage points.

(CNN) - Republican Scott Walker appears to have lost his lead in this year's gubernatorial race, according to a new survey of Wisconsin voters.

A Marquette University Law School survey released Wednesday indicated the contest all tied up between the incumbent and Democratic challenger Mary Burke at 46%. That's a significant change from March when the same poll showed Walker up 7 points.

(CNN) - Kentucky residents awoke Wednesday to a new wave of negative campaign television commercials.

They're just a taste of things to come over the next five months in what's already a very ugly and expensive Senate contest. When it's all over in November, the Bluegrass showdown could break records and become the most expensive Senate campaign in history.

(CNN) - As a string of federal judges across the country have struck down several state bans on same-sex marriage, over half of Americans support the move to allow same-sex couples to legally wed.

A Gallup survey released Wednesday showed 55% of respondents approve of laws granting same-sex couples equal rights to traditional marriages. That's an all-time high in a Gallup survey since it started asking about the issue in 1996, when only 27% surveyed said same-sex marriages should be valid.

(CNN) - The chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee is calling on the Obama administration to permit veterans waiting for care at VA hospitals to seek treatment outside that system, if they want.

Rep. Jeff Miller, a Florida Republican, called on President Barack Obama to issue an executive order that would allow those veterans to act on their own and charge the government for outside care.

CNN’s POLITICAL GUT CHECK | for May 21, 2014 | 12 p.m.
— n. a pause to assess the state, progress or condition of the political news cycle

JUST IN … OBAMA DEFENDS SHINSEKI, CALLS V.A. ALLEGATIONS “DISHONORABLE, DISGRACEFUL”…"I will not stand for it," President Barack Obama said today about allegations of misconduct at Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals. Obama said he understands that the public wants a "swift reckoning" in the VA scandal, but he asked for time to allow the investigation into allegations of fraudulent record-keeping to run its course.

Obama met today with Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki and said he told him there will be accountability throughout the VA system.

(CNN) – Gov. Chris Christie, who chairs the Republican Governors Association, argued Wednesday that fiscal problems back at home in New Jersey aren't clouding his leadership abilities at the RGA.

The group has been aggressively pushing a message that states are better off economically under Republican governors. Christie was asked at a press conference in New York whether that same argument can be made in the Garden State.